Covid scare: Lack of data on deaths post recovery concerns many

CHENNAI: Over seven lakh patients have been discharged after undergoing treatment for coronavirus in Tamil Nadu, but the health department has little to no data on the number of patients who died due to Covid-related complications post discharge.

An official at a post Covid follow-up clinic said that one per cent of total patients that they contacted for review meeting had died. "The doctors came to know about the deaths after they called up patients for follow-up checks. The deaths would account for one per cent of the total of around 3,000 calls the doctors made," the source said. Most of these deaths happened on the 10th or 20th day after discharge and the majority had co-morbid conditions.

Speaking to Express, Dr TS Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health said, "The department has not been collecting such data." The doctors and experts are concerned that lack of such data would not give a real picture about the severity of the pandemic. The death is added to Covid list only if the person dies with the virus. If the patient tests negative in RT-PCR test then it is termed as non-Covid death.

"We have post-Covid follow-up clinics, but unless we follow up cases of deaths after discharge and find out what was the cause of the death, we wouldn't know if the patient died with the virus or what are the complications that led to the death. Even ICMR doesn't have clear guidelines on follow up of discharge cases and also how post Covid complications deaths should be recorded," a government doctor said.

A senior health official said, "Now our priority is to save lives. These statistics and all can be collected later. We need not worry about deaths that would account for less than one per cent right now." Dr P Kuganantham, senior epidemiologist and a member of the State Special Task Force Against Covid-19 said it is crucial to maintain such data.

"Post-Covid complications are many, like lung fibrosis to heart problems, stroke and many more. So, field staff like Urban Health nurses, Village Health nurses can be made to follow up on patients. Only then we will know how serious are the complications and how many are dying. Also we can prevent these deaths if the intervention is started early," said Kuganantham.

Meanwhile virologist T Jacob John said, "We don't have a system by which post-Covid problems can be registered. The government is counting only positive cases. If there are negative cases we will never know and also if there is an untested person with Covid, the system will never know. Unless we diagnose them properly we don't know the magnitude of the problem," said John.